Posted: Nov 12, 2017

WXC | Bottomley Leads Voyageurs to 15th Place Finish at Nationals

The Laurentian women's cross country running team competed at the USports National Championships, in Victoria this weekend, finishing 15^th with a score of 389 points.

Running in pouring rain, the women's squad was led by Jenny Bottomley, who finished in 47^th place with a time of 30:40 over the 8km course. She was followed by Megan Crocker, who placed 56^th in 30:57, Heidi Tuszkiewicz, who was 74^th in 31:39, Nicole Rich, who placed 103^rd in 32:239, and Meghan Sippel who was 109sth in 32:39. Nicole Sartor acted as displacer with a 127^th place finish in 33:21.

"It wasn't the finish to the season we were hoping for," said head coach, Dick Moss. "One of our runners contracted food poisoning the night before but still raced, and another passed out on the course, so you know they were giving it their all. But that said, nobody was really sharp. We ran exceptionally well up until the OUA's, then to limped into Nationals, so we'll be doing some careful analysis of the season for next year. We definitely intend to be back at Nats next year – with both the men and the women. Almost everybody will be return from both teams and we have some promising rookies who now have a year of seasoning."

The women's squad finish the season with a 40/26 win/loss record. The men's win/loss was 29/42.

Both squads will take a two week off-season, then begin training for indoor track.

Of interest, Laurentian men's team runner, Paul Sagriff, won the Athletics Ontario Junior Cross Country Championships this weekend, representing his hometown Kingston Achilles Track Club.

Team Scores

1. U. of Toronto, 73 pts

2. Queens, 92 pts

3. Laval, 112

4. Victoria, 124

5. Guelph, 142

6. McGill, 158

7. McMaster, 192

8. Alberta, 259

9. Trinity Western, 260

10.Calgary, 294

11.Sherbrooke, 311